Making Traditional rice Wine. Cheap, Fun, and Different

CornyKegs 728
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Just 'bottled' my first attempt after 20 days and the taste is slightly sweet and fairly smooth, I get a hint of rice/jasmine aroma (even from the thai sticky/sweet rice). It is pretty damn nice!
I ended up with just over 1/4 gallon from 5 cups of the thai sticky rice and 4 rice balls. I pasteurized most of it but saved about 1/2 cup in the fridge to sample and compare to the pastuerized wine.
Pretty happy with the outcome, even worked well after overcooking my rice in a rice cooker and getting a big ol pasty mess to start with.
I'm currently steaming 5 cups of the rice for my second batch to see how steaming it makes any difference.
Not to blog spam but here is my post on the overall process I used (same as in this thread).
Jerry

Rice Wine 20 days.jpg


cooling off rice wine.jpg
 
So, after further research. I found I am making a different type of wine with the funky yeast. Apparently I am making Makkoli/Makgeoli/Makgeolli which is a traditional Korean fermented rice drink. I am not trying to divert the thread, but I will do a side by side comparison after both are finished up. It looks like some add wine yeast to help with the fermentation. I will do so and see how things go. Here are a few threads about this traditional Korean drink on HBT:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/korean-rice-beer-makkoli-288097/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/great-makgeolli-experiment-283608/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/makgeolli-272306/
 
TBBrewer said:
So, after further research. I found I am making a different type of wine with the funky yeast. Apparently I am making Makkoli/Makgeoli/Makgeolli which is a traditional Korean fermented rice drink. I am not trying to divert the thread, but I will do a side by side comparison after both are finished up. It looks like some add wine yeast to help with the fermentation. I will do so and see how things go. Here are a few threads about this traditional Korean drink on HBT:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/korean-rice-beer-makkoli-288097/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/great-makgeolli-experiment-283608/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/makgeolli-272306/
Click to expand...

This is what I love about this site...you stumble upon an ingredients for an obscure traditional Korean rice wine and find three quality, detailed threads on how to make it...

And the second thread you linked had this in it:

Fermented cereals a global perspective. Chapter 3.

Great background for the discussion in this thread, I highly recommend it if you like dense academic discussions of the origins of these fermentation traditions (personally they had me hooked at "The correlation between rice eating habits and fish sauce consumption was discussed by Ishige (1993)")
 
Tamarlane said:
This is what I love about this site...you stumble upon an ingredients for an obscure traditional Korean rice wine and find three quality, detailed threads on how to make it...

And the second thread you linked had this in it:

Fermented cereals a global perspective. Chapter 3.

Great background for the discussion in this thread, I highly recommend it if you like dense academic discussions of the origins of these fermentation traditions (personally they had me hooked at "The correlation between rice eating habits and fish sauce consumption was discussed by Ishige (1993)")
Click to expand...

I did see that link and will be reading it tonight. I also picked up some red rice yeast and plan on doing some reading on that subject also.
 
jazzman said:
I didn't cool my rice enough and it formed a gray/blue fuzz then came the black dots koji I guess. It didn't do much the first week but now after 3 weeks it has produced a decent amount of cloudy liquid in the bottom of jar and smells pretty good. Next batch, i'll cool it more.
Click to expand...

This happened to me too when I didn't cool enough.

Has anyone scooped it out or left it and taken it thorough the whole process? How did it turn out? I know once you see the mold it's pretty much grown deeper as well (just because you see it doesnt mean its not there). I'm talking about the blue/grey/black fuzzy stuff.

I've been curious how it would turn out but the batches I've made successfully with just the white cap that forms are for gifts and I cant afford to take them through to the end only to find out they're no good.
 
sonofgrok said:
I always put the dry rice in the cooker then rinse (I stopped soaking) and fill the water level to the first knuckle (closest to the nail) on my middle finger with my finger tip at the top of the rice level. So whatever that works out to.
Click to expand...

The tried and true asian rice cooking technique, haha
 
That Makgeolli thread had a link to that enzyme for 5$ a lb. I got 4. No Hmarts near me, lots of Chinese groceries, I can find yeast cakes and ryr but they didn't seem to have the nuruk anywhere. Good find.... I'm an Amylase chaser.
 
Tabb said:
Will this benefit from a cold crash period?
Click to expand...
I've done it in the fridge, or a version thereof, but honestly the only real good way is to decant it off of the "rice lees" (term used in some sichuan cookbooks I have) and then let the suspended starch particles crash out like a nigori zake.

Also, nice to see someone using the korean "nuruk" above. Still trying to wade through it on my study break >.< So much great stuff going on here. All this rice wine talk going on makes me happy inside :)
 
sonofgrok said:
I always put the dry rice in the cooker then rinse (I stopped soaking) and fill the water level to the first knuckle (closest to the nail) on my middle finger with my finger tip at the top of the rice level. So whatever that works out to.
Click to expand...


Its funny I had done this method for my first two batches, then last night when cooking up my third batch I realized that due to the size of my rice cooker and the amount of rice that I had been using, this was getting me at way less than 1:1 ratio, more like 7 cups of rice and 3.5-4 cups water. I split up the 7 cup batch last night so I could get 1:1 ratio. Just trying something different this time, to see if it produces a better yield - I can't ever seem to get the rice to float like everyone else. We shall see!
 
Tabb said:
How if at all would I have got a reading to know the gravity of this?
Click to expand...

Good question. How is everybody calculating the abv of this? Short of assumptions of extraction and knowing potential, how would one go about this? Not that it is critical, just wondering myself.
 
TBBrewer said:
Good question. How is everybody calculating the abv of this? Short of assumptions of extraction and knowing potential, how would one go about this? Not that it is critical, just wondering myself.
Click to expand...

You can try the Honeymann Method, which involves heating a sample to reduce it, adding a volume of water, and some other steps. Method pretty easy to find on the web. Some have used a vinometer, but those things are never accurate from what others have to say.
 
Or try a mass balance...weight of rice, water, yeast-balls in minus weight of rice wine and rice cake out. Take CO2 and water vapor losses into account...look for patterns in the newspaper clippings...consult astrology hotline...

I tried a different take...in my brewing "software" (excel-spreadsheet) flaked rice yields about 38 gravity points per pound (dry wight). I assumed 100% extraction (since the rice stays in the solution during fermentation) I cooked 400g rice. About a week later, when the liquid covered the rice, the liquid volume was measured at about 900ml (not counting the rice solids which were subtracted after harvest about 120ml worth).

A little math later and my estimated for OG was 1.140 and measured FG was 1.024. So about 16%.
 
For those interested here is the math...

OG = 1 + ((400g / 454g/lb * 38points/lb-gallon) / ((1020ml - 120ml) / (3785ml/gallon)))] / 1000 = 1.1408

OG = 1 + (rice wt [lbs] * 38points/lb-gallon) / (Liquid volume [gallons])) / 1000

The "liquid volume" is the water added prior to cooking but subtracting any lost as steam during cooking. I think the best way to have measured this would have been to weigh the rice, then weigh the cooked rice, subtract the dry weight from the cooked weight, and convert from grams to gallons water...but I didn't think of doing that until about a week or so after I started it.
 
saramc said:
You can try the Honeymann Method, which involves heating a sample to reduce it, adding a volume of water, and some other steps. Method pretty easy to find on the web. Some have used a vinometer, but those things are never accurate from what others have to say.
Click to expand...

I think the suspended solids would screw up the heat evap calculation as the final mass of solids would probably be more than just sugar.
 
TBBrewer said:
So, looks like we may never know.
Click to expand...

Yep. We can add it to the list of things we may never know.

1. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?
2. How much alcohol is in my rice wine?
 
sonofgrok said:
I think the suspended solids would screw up the heat evap calculation as the final mass of solids would probably be more than just sugar.
Click to expand...
Well, there is the alternate method posted a while back in here. Take a gravity reading. Then take a specific volume of rice wine, boil it until you are sure all of the alcohol has evaporated out. Then add distilled water until you reach your original volume. Take another gravity reading. It should then be possible to calculate the ABV by the increase in the gravity of the liquid after the alcohol has been displaced by water.

I've not done this, but the logic is sound. The formula is in here someplace. I've not been willing to sacrifice a large enough sample to this method to get an accurate reading.
 
I agree with don't worry about the ABV. Someone said in a couple of pages prior that he had access to a lab and would do it when he had time. So, for now I hand it out calling it rice milk. It way to funny to watch friends pour a full glass. I end up telling them that you poured it, so put your big boy panties on and drink it!
 
Drunken0ne said:
I agree with don't worry about the ABV. Someone said in a couple of pages prior that he had access to a lab and would do it when he had time. So, for now I hand it out calling it rice milk. It way to funny to watch friends pour a full glass. I end up telling them that you poured it, so put your big boy panties on and drink it!
Click to expand...

Ha ha. Brutal!
 
i gotta say harvisted mine earler today it is strong as hell i dont so much like the flavor im getting on mine. im sure i messed mine up as i did this batch in a crock pot and it came out like putty. i used about 12 cups of jazz rice and about 18 cops of water let it ride about 22 days. i do not know what that flavor is but it was kinda like a mead i made that had not aged yet. not plesant but i put about 8 oz down quickly and it is kicking my azz pretty good at the moment. im sure if i flavor it itll turn out much better. even if every batch i make from now on taste like this im always gonna have some going because it is cheap. and i can experament on it. mine kinda smells like rubbing alcohol is that normal? thanks sonofgrok and hell for that matter the crazy person that many years ago thought im gonna eat that rice that looks like hell in that bowl
 
Gar said:
i gotta say harvisted mine earler today it is strong as hell i dont so much like the flavor im getting on mine. im sure i messed mine up as i did this batch in a crock pot and it came out like putty. i used about 12 cups of jazz rice and about 18 cops of water let it ride about 22 days. i do not know what that flavor is but it was kinda like a mead i made that had not aged yet. not plesant but i put about 8 oz down quickly and it is kicking my azz pretty good at the moment. im sure if i flavor it itll turn out much better. even if every batch i make from now on taste like this im always gonna have some going because it is cheap. and i can experament on it. mine kinda smells like rubbing alcohol is that normal? thanks sonofgrok and hell for that matter the crazy person that many years ago thought im gonna eat that rice that looks like hell in that bowl
Click to expand...

Even a couple days after harvest I think you will find the alcohol hotness will calm down a bit. Flavoring helps as well
 
As far as the alcohol content goes, someone could cough up the money for one of those test kits from Northern Brewer...
 
Just a little update on the nuruk batch and the regular one. I am not 100% sure if the nuruk alone had yeast in it as all the recipes said to add bakers yeast or wine yeast. The first 2 days the rice mixed with the nuruk only. This turned the rice into a liquid pretty quick. It smelled and tasted quite sour. I added the wine yeast at day 3 and the air lock bubbled like crazy for a day and a half. I have stirred both batches 1-2 times a day. The nuruk batch had slowed and is still slowly bubbling. It has a banana estery smell almost like a hefe beer. It still smells sour. The plain white rice and Chinese yeast balls are fermenting away slowly but surely. I am wondering if I should filter the nuruk batch soon? From what I have read, the more nuruk you use, the more sour it gets. I used 1lb for 6lbs of rice and I think that was way too much. From what I also read, fermenting the nuruk in the upper 60's reduced the sourness. I will probably wait until the nuruk batches airlock stops bubbling and then filter and post the pics of the results.
 

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